Summary

Say hello to Pac's new girlfriend

The Good

Ms. Pac-Man is the sequel to Pac-Man, the first game to include a central character where the user is free to navigate around the maze in any direction. What sets Ms. Pac-Man apart is that she wears the same things that normal women have on their faces - eyeliner, lipstick, a bow, and a beauty spot. Although this game shares the similar gameplay to its predecessor, it is far more superior, and anyone who is playing this game for the first time will notice the differences.

For example, there isn't the one maze, but four of them. Each maze has different colors and is structured differently, with two pairs of escape tunnels in different positions. The mazes did not change in Pac-Man, and it was boring for me just looking at the same maze for long enough, so looking at different mazes is refreshing

The fruit that you can get wanders around aimlessly through the maze instead of remaining static in the center of the screen, and you have plenty of time to get it before it goes through the escape tunnel and disappears. I like how getting the fruit is a bit of a challenge as it is likely that you guide Ms. Pac-Man around the same corners rather than where the fruit is heading, and you have to look for short-cuts so that you can get to it quicker before the ghosts stop you.

One big difference is that Clyde has been replaced with Sue, but I have no idea what was wrong with Clyde. There are new intermissions. I only viewed one of these, since I haven't completed level five yet. The one I viewed has Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man being chased by two of the ghosts. The two of them meet up later then fall in love. The funny thing about this intermission is that Pac-Man hasn't got any eyes. It is possible that Pac-Man looks like this through the remainder of the game.

There are new sound effects, including new start-up music and new death sound. One sound effect that I enjoy listening to is the sound effect that plays whenever Ms. Pac-Man manages to get a power-pellet – it is just like Pac-Man, but changes to higher notes to indicate when the ghosts are returning back to normal.

The Bad

I can't really think of anything bad about this game.

The Bottom Line

Ms. Pac-Man has the simple objective as its predecessor – gobble up all the dots in the maze while avoiding the ghosts. There are slight changes to the game, including the layout of the mazes, the fruit wandering around aimlessly, and the replacement of Clyde with Sue. There are new intermissions and new sound effects. These differences do not stop gamers from enjoying the game's success.